Chapter 27: Triple the Price, All of You Will Work for Me!

Su Ze opened the door, leaned against the doorframe, and calmly sized up the group of people.

The tall, sturdy boy at the front swallowed hard and squeezed out a smile that looked worse than crying: "Su... Boss Su Ze, we are here to... trade."

"Hmm." Su Ze responded indifferently. Without wasting words, he moved his mind, and piles of goods instantly appeared on the open space in front of him.

[500ml drinking water], [compressed biscuits], [bread], [Wood material], [Iron Material], [Stone Material], [hemostatic bandages], [antibiotics].

The dazzling array of supplies radiated a deadly temptation in the dim corridor.

A collective gasp echoed through the crowd, and everyone's eyes went wide.

"I welcome barter trades." Su Ze's voice was calm and waveless. "However, I only accept relatively rare items, such as blueprints, skill books, or relatively rare materials."

As soon as these words were spoken, the crowd immediately became restless.

A thin, small boy immediately pulled a rusty fruit knife from his embrace and handed it over as if presenting a treasure.

"Boss! Look at this! [Rusty Fruit Knife]! Although it's of inferior quality, it's still a weapon!"

Another person hurriedly took out his own "treasure": "I have a [damaged lighter] here! Boss, can't you make fire? This will definitely come in handy!"

"I have..."

Su Ze glanced at the junk they brought out, not even interested enough to take a second look.

He shook his head: "Too trashy, I won't accept them."

The hope on everyone's faces was instantly extinguished.

"However," Su Ze changed his tone, "you can also use another type of item to purchase."

He reached out his hand, and a golden copper coin danced at his fingertips. "copper coins."

"drinking water, 6 copper coins a bottle. compressed biscuits, 6 copper coins a piece; bread, 9 copper coins each."

"Wood material is 3 copper coins, and both Iron Material and Stone Material are 6 copper coins."

"Hemostatic bandages are 10 copper coins, and antibiotics are 20 copper coins."

The prices he quoted were shockingly three times higher than those in the Survival Mall!

Anyway, this group of people didn't even know the Survival Mall existed, so he could decide the prices himself.

Sure enough, the crowd fell into a state of confusion.

"copper coins? What are those?"

"I... I don't have any!"

"Boss, where are we supposed to get those?"

Su Ze couldn't be bothered to explain. He reached into his backpack, pulled out a few golden copper coins, and tossed them at his fingertips. "Kill zombies, and they drop these."

A single stone stirred up a thousand waves!

"Kill zombies?!"

"Are you kidding me! Most of us don't even have weapons, how are we supposed to kill zombies?"

"Exactly, even the five-star gift pack in the Boss's Dormitory only has at most two weapons. Isn't this just sending us to our deaths?!"

The crowd became restless again. The hope that had just ignited was extinguished once more, replaced by deeper despair and a hint of anger at being toyed with.

Su Ze seemed to have anticipated their reaction long ago. He waved his hand unhurriedly. Clatter—two piles of weapons of varying lengths appeared out of thin air on the floor at his feet.

Rusty dumbbell plates, bent tennis rackets, broken mop handles, cracked kitchen knives... these were all the inferior weapons he had scavenged last night.

And in the other pile, baseball bats, short blades, boxing gloves, brass knuckles, daggers... that was a pile of normal-quality weapons.

"No weapons?" Su Ze's voice carried a hint of mockery. "I have some here."

Everyone's eyes were instantly locked onto that pile of weapons! Greed, desire, intensity... various emotions intertwined in their eyes.

"Boss! How do we trade for these weapons?" The tall, sturdy boy was the first to react and asked eagerly.

"Inferior ones range from thirty to fifty copper coins." Su Ze casually pointed at the pile of junk. "Normal ones are fifty to eighty."

"Hiss—" A collective gasp echoed through the corridor.

"copper coins again? We can't even afford food! Let alone these weapons!"

"Exactly, where are we supposed to get copper coins!"

"Killing one zombie only drops two copper coins. To buy the trashiest weapon, we'd have to kill fifteen zombies?!"

"This... isn't this making things difficult for us? We don't have copper coins to buy food, so we have to kill zombies, but to kill zombies, we first need copper coins to buy weapons!"

"It's over, a death loop... There's absolutely no way to survive now..."

The hope that had just risen in everyone was shattered again by the cruel reality.

Looking at their dejected faces, Su Ze finally threw out his real plan.

"If you can't afford to buy, you can rent."

"Rent?" Everyone was stunned.

"Yes, rent." Su Ze squatted down and picked up a rusty steel pipe. "For example, this one. Renting it for a day costs ten copper coins. But you need collateral."

This piece of junk, which even a scrap collector would have rejected before the apocalypse and whose stats only showed single-digit attack power, shone with the brilliance of salvation in their eyes.

No matter how trashy it was, it was still a steel pipe and could still kill zombies!

Su Ze paused, looked at their nervous expressions, and continued.

"To rent an inferior weapon, the collateral is two bottles of drinking water or two packs of compressed biscuits. For a normal weapon, the collateral is doubled. If it's materials, the quantity is doubled again. Of course, if you have better items, we can negotiate."

"Rent is calculated by the day. Inferior weapons are 10 copper coins a day, and normal weapons are 30 copper coins a day."

"Before 5:30 PM every day, come to me on time to return the weapons and pay the rent. Then, you can take your collateral back. As for the extra copper coins, you can buy the things you need from me."

"Also, since there are many of you, if you don't have enough, several people can rent one weapon together, then take turns using it or split the copper coins cooperatively. How you distribute it is your own business; I only recognize the person who came to rent it in the first place."

The entire corridor was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard. Everyone was stunned by this series of combo punches from Su Ze.

First, he whetted everyone's appetite with food, then told them they needed to use copper coins to buy it. When they were in despair because they couldn't obtain copper coins, he threw out weapons as a "solution." Finally, he "thoughtfully" provided a collateral rental service.

One link after another, forming a perfect closed loop. His words were clear and cold, yet they gave everyone a visible and tangible path to survival!

The crowd was deathly quiet. Everyone was rapidly digesting this information and calculating the gains and losses.

Using their only survival supplies as collateral in exchange for a chance to kill zombies and earn money... this was undoubtedly a gamble. But, did they have a choice?

If they didn't gamble, they would just hold onto their meager supplies, waiting to run out of food and starve to death. If they gambled, there was at least a glimmer of hope!

"I... I'll rent!" In the crowd, a thin, skinny boy was the first to stand out. He carefully took two packs of compressed biscuits from his embrace and handed them over with trembling hands.

"I... I'll rent an inferior weapon!"

Su Ze nodded, accepted the biscuits, and casually tossed a bent steel pipe over. The boy caught the steel pipe as if it were a treasure, his face blooming with the wild joy of someone who had survived a disaster.

With an example set, the rest of the people could no longer hold back.

"I'll rent too! The three of us will rent one normal one together!"

"And me!"

"Quiet down." At this moment, Su Ze stood up and looked around at everyone. "I'll say the ugly words upfront."

"First, for those who default and don't return the items, the collateral will be confiscated, and you will be permanently blacklisted. Don't even think about trading anything from me in the future."

"Second, don't think about using my weapons to rob others, or monopolizing the share of benefits belonging to other co-investors..."

"If I find out who breaks the rules, I will issue a bounty and use supplies you cannot refuse to put a bounty on their head."

The cold words made everyone on the scene who harbored ulterior motives feel a shiver down their spines.

This rule completely eliminated the possibility of them taking shortcuts. After all, if one could survive by robbing, who would be willing to risk their life fighting zombies?

Su Ze was forcing them to only take the path of "working" for him!